Steroid.ERA blew me away
this offseason. He sent Francisco Lindor packing, a player who I would think is
perfect to build around.
But, Steroid is going a
different route.
And it appears that route
to the playoffs is a bit longer than a year.
“I don’t expect to make
the playoffs this season,” said Steroid, who has made the playoffs only once in
his four years in the JLB, “but I want to be competitive. So I will be active
in the trade department, but not to be a farm system for the rest of the league
like the Marlins.”
I don’t think he’ll have
to worry about that because he doesn’t have Christian Yelich, Marcel Ozuna and
Giancarlo Stanton.
What he does have is Mike
Zunino, Matt Carpenter, Whit Merrifield, Tommy Pham, Andrew McCutchen, Marwin
Gonzalez, Orlando Arcia, Francisco Mejia, Victor Robles, Zack Greinke, Stephen
Gonsalves, Alex Wood, Ken Giles and Raisel Iglesias — all acquired in trades
over the last year. … And they’re just the ones who were kept.
“Lots of moves, yes, but I
kept the good majority of what I went out and acquired,” said Steroid, who
finished with a franchise-worst 172 wins last season. “And some of what I
didn’t keep, I re-drafted. I love Cutch this year. He will thrive in RF in SF
and be on a team that has a chance to be a contender. I miss seeing him in
Black and Gold but his bat will come alive! I also love Mejia. I like that the
Indians are trying to find ways to get his bat to the big league team. And when
he becomes an everyday player he will be a huge addition to my team. Marwin
Gonzalez, the human Swiss Army knife, will fill many different spots and should
produce decent running stats.”
Steroid admitted that
keeping Zunino may have been a mistake based on the number of catcher out there
in the draft, but that was a lesson learned.
The other lesson he may
have learned from the 2018 draft was not to forget about the bullpen. He kept
two closers into the draft and added just one pitcher who will collect holds —
Mychal Givens.
He is going to be
hard-pressed to win saves and holds each week for sure, and strikeouts and wins
may be just as hard to come by when pitching lineup slots will be left open
daily.
“I wanted to go into the
draft with three RP but couldn’t make a deal with anyone for an RP that I was
targeting pre-draft,” Steroid said. “But yes I am looking for RP help.”
He did add a bit up help
with a trade for Kyle Barraclough and added Matt Barnes in waivers.
Now that the bullpen is
sturdier, he may also be looking for SP help. Luke Weaver could be the best
pitcher on staff — yes, I’m a bit worried about Zack Greinke — and there really
isn’t another starter who stands out as that
guy. Alex Wood, Marco Estrada and Charlie Morton are all serviceable
pieces, but he’ll need one of them to step up big time and Greinke to be
healthy.
And if he gets that, then
he just needs Weaver to live up to the billing — 2-0, 0.68 ERA and 15
strikeouts in four spring training starts thus far.
“Weaver looked like an ace
during spring ball, that’s for damn sure!” Steroid said. “I look forward to
seeing him shine and dominate hitting. The biggest hit to my team would be him
going down for any amount of time this season.”
That may be true, but the
biggest hit may have already happened, and that's the loss of Lindor.
“It is incredibly tough!”
Steroid said of looking at his roster and not seeing Lindor penciled in at
shortstop. “Lindor was a huge asset to my team for the last few seasons and would
be huge to still have him.”
And you still could, if you only would have put him on your untouchable list.
Oh, wait.
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